Monday, November 7, 2016

Tactics: Learning to Fight Tohaa

Tohaa are one of the most interesting and unique factions in Infinity. This can lead to Tohaa being a kind of hard faction to play against, if you aren't used to them. Let's break down what exactly makes them unique, how it works, and some good counters:

Triads

The one thing that can really be hard to deal with is the sheer amount of Triads Tohaa can field. Each Triad, having three members, gives members +1 burst , like a standard 3-member Fireteam. This means Tohaa troops in Triads get one additional shot in the Active turn (Burst 5 HMGs anyone?) and each of them get an additional shot in the Reactive turn.

Try to break these teams apart, just like you would a regular Fireteam: take out the leader, eliminate the weaker troops, templates, isolate them, etc. As soon as they drop below three members, they no longer get the burst bonus, so it might be wise to try to either break the link or take out the weakest 'link'.

Symbiont Armor

Not every Tohaa troop has it, but you'll definitely know when they do. It's essentially a second wound that comes rather cheaply, protects them from the 'death' effect of shock and viral, and allows them a few other perks (like symbiomates and symbiobombs).

The most important thing to realize is that when a troop loses their symbiont armor, they usually lose a few other things (abilities, stat buffs, etc.), so keep an eye on that. Definitely look over a courtesy list when playing against Tohaa and decide how important it will be to take out that symbiont armor! For instance, Kotails lose super-jump, holoprojector, 2 ARM, 3 BTS, and 2 PH. However, when a Sakiel loses its symbiont armor, it only loses 2 points of ARM. Taking out the symbiont will do a whole lot more harm to the Kotail than to the Sakiel, so note these differences and prioritize crippling the force as much as possible...or just kill them instead.

Another important thing to realize is that symbiont armor doesn't like fire much. If the armor has more than 1 W and fails an ARM check against fire, then the entire thing is lost. This is exceptionally useful against Ectros, Rasails, Gorgos, etc.

Symbiomates

These little things are a REAL pain. They are attached to symbiont armor users, but act as a one order shield. Those symbiont armor troops that get significantly weaker when they lose their symbiont armor will more than likely have one of these tagging along. Pay attention to what markers/tokens each trooper has next to them and take special notes about whether it's a symbiomate or not.

There's no solid way to counter these little buggers. Best thing to do is to peck at the symbiont-wear and hope they use the 'mate to absorb the shots. Don't do any risky or bold maneuvers in hopes of destroying the troop and the 'mate. Play it safe, let them use the 'mate up on something weaker and more resilient, and then focus on taking out that symbiont armor and troop with a higher burst, more terrifying weapon, but riskier troop option. For example, use a resilient HRL trooper to encourage your opponent to pop the mate and then sneak up with a less resilient, HMG/spitfire troop. Another thing to note is if your opponent doesn't use the 'mate when shot and loses the symbiont armor, they also lose the 'mate (can't use them when in 'Inactive Symbiont' mode). Definitely do NOT let your opponent use their 'mates on their turn, otherwise they will go on an invincible rampage. Eliminate the 'mates on your Active turn, when possible.

---Something that was just brought to my attention from Vorthain over at the Infinity forums, is that symbiomates do NOT absorb criticals, they go through like normal. Knowing this, I suggest using more reliable high burst weapons in hopes of scoring criticals and force your opponent's hand to use the 'mate to absorb a flurry of hits.

Pheroware

Hacking is not Tohaa's strong-suit, so instead they use 'phacking' or pheroware (they do crazy stuff with pheromones...kind of creepy). It requires a WIP check, but upon succeeding, it can allow the user to do all kinds of weird things ranging from healing symbiont armor, reviving unconscious troops, to killing their targets or immobilizing them. There's no direct counter, but keep them in mind. It's best to know what they can do and plan accordingly, than to be surprised when some crazy stuff happens.

There's a wide suite of pheroware abilities and ways to get/use them. Symbiobombs turn any symbiont armor user into a one use pheroware machine. Some troops come innately with pheroware (i.e. Kaaruri Sentinel). Then there are Corahtar Discilpline Lv. 2 troops, but they don't currently exist.

Conclusion

Tohaa greatly rely on synergies. They are an organic machine, so once you start destroying the cogs, the monstrous machine will fall apart. Find the weakest links in the army and take them out first. Eliminate 'mates and symbiont armor to help give your troops a fighting chance against the higher resilience of the Tohaa. Be careful of pheroware and don't expect your shock and viral weapons to instantly vaporize troops with symbiont armor. The most important thing is to figure out what Tohaa troops will be your biggest threat and then figure out ways to cripple those threats.

When fighting Tohaa, hit hard, hit efficiently, and hit precisely. They already start with more resilience and Order efficiency than most forces, so you don't have much room for mistakes.

Precisely, however, as Stuart mentioned below, good Tohaa players won't let you see the other, inactive members of the Triad. Sometimes you just have to try to out-gun them or sneak up on 'em! Agreed though, definitely eliminate the weaker members of the team when you can.

I definitely agree with all of these statements! Of course other things can help too, but CC specialists, AD, and HD are superb for cracking Triads. My personal favorite is to just shoot the team leader with a Spetsnaz HMG. Works like a charm ;)